Notes on a Scandal
by jazzywazzy08
Summary: Schoolteacher Niklaus Mikaelson has led a solitary life until Stefan Salvatore, the new English teacher at Mystic Falls High School, befriends him and takes him on as a confidante. But as their relationship develops, so does another as Stefan begins an illicit affair with an underage student, Bonnie Bennett. When the affair is discovered Klaus decides to write an account of the eve
1. Foreword

**Title:** Notes on a Scandal

 **Rating:** M

 **Genre:** AU All Human

 **Pairing(s):** Bonnie/Stefan, Klaus/Stefan, Bonnie/Klaus, Bonnie/Stefan/Klaus, Stefan/Katherine, Caroline/Matt, Tyler/Vicki, mentions of past Bonnie/Mason, Klaus/Marcel, ect.

 **Summary:** Schoolteacher Niklaus Mikaelson has led a solitary life until Stefan Salvatore, the new English teacher at Mystic Falls High School, befriends him and takes him on as a confidante. But as their relationship develops, so does another as Stefan begins an illicit affair with an underage student, Bonnie Bennett. When the affair is discovered Klaus decides to write an account of the events in his friend's defense— through which it is revealed that his intentions with this "friend" go well beyond platonic friendship. Things become further complicated when Klaus' obsession extends to Bonnie during Stefan's trial.

 **Warnings:** Infidelity, Sexual Content, Non-Canon, Polyamourous Relationships, OOC Behavior, etc.

 _ **Author's Note: This is a repost. This fic was removed from Wattpad and I am so frustrated. There is a glitch going on on Wattpad and my stories are disappearing. The fixed the issue with one but honestly I am tired of dealing with it. So I started this fic for two reasons the main one being that I need help and the second being I wanted to do a Klefonnie story in a different sort of setting. I am taking a bit of a risk with this, but I am trusting that if not open to the idea at the very least you all will give me honest feedback. Okay so this is inspired by both the book What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal and the movie adaption of the book which was titled simply, Notes on a Scandal. However, I am taking the idea toward different territory. I will try to keep everyone in character for the most part, but I can't make any promises. So here is how this will go, the start of this will be in Klaus' POV, a first person, and then it will go into third person as the story goes along. Klaus's perspective of things is a bit skewed and he is not the most reliable narrator but his observations do have some merit. There will be breaks in which we will see Klaus' POV again as he writes his account of events and it will jump into present which is amidst Stefan's trial. Anyway please give me feedback or I will curl up in a ball and eat cookie dough and cry (side note: I will likely be doing this sans the crying whether you give feedback or not). Here goes nothing! Happy reading!**_

 **Foreword**

" _We are bound by the secrets we share." ― Zoë Heller, What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal]_

 _ **Mystic Falls, Virginia**_

 _ **March 1, 2010**_

In spite of the trial beginning today, Stefan saw fit to talk about the first time that he kissed the Bennett girl, last night at dinner. I had of course, heard the story before, more than once. Sometimes prompted and sometimes not. However, this time around, a new detail slipped from Stefan's lips.

When it became clear that in spite of my lack of response the story would continue, I began to ask questions. I happened to ask him if there was anything about the experience that surprised him. He took this question into consideration for some time. Thinking on it for a while and closed his eyes in the most irritating of ways as if he were reliving the experience over and over again.

The answer that he came up with was one that I had not expected. The smell and the feel of the whole thing, in particular the smell of the Bennett girl and the feel of her lips. Her being a teenager, and a cheerleader besides, he had expected her to smell of something both disgustingly flowery and overwhelming in equal parts. He expected her lips to feel sticky with lip gloss and perhaps taste of something fruity like cherries, or worse strawberries.

 _When it happened, it was a very surreal moment. If not for the scents, the feel, the taste; I would have been able to convince myself later that it had not happened to me but someone else. She smelled like soap and vanilla, her scent was soft and warm. Her lips were soft as well, and gentle. I have never felt such warmth and gentility since my mother passed away after her illness. I thought such things were lost to the world…_

Every night this week since we moved into his old family boarding house Stefan has talked to me of her. He sits in an old worn chair that used to be his mothers and he speaks in a low voice as if he is afraid that someone might hear, though as his brother bought their childhood home for his own family some time ago, and the boarding house is vacant, there is no one left to hear.

Often the things he says are extremely personal in nature, very in depth, and detailed. If not for how closed mouth he has been with the reporters I would guess that he could not speak of the Bennett girl without falling into some ridiculously worshipful exaggerated diatribe.

From what I have discovered over the eighteen months in which I have known him, I can say very plainly that Stefan is a brooder. He goes over his own behavior again and again, particularly things that others might consider to be a sin, in incredible detail. Dissecting his own actions, his brows knitted together and his mind consumed with guilt whether or not he feels that his actions are wrong.

I am the only one who he ever speaks with in this way, outside of himself and the girl. We don't have secrets, Stefan and I.

 _When I first saw her undress, do you know what I thought of Nik? It was the oddest thing, but I thought of being invited into someone's home. It was as if I was a guest being welcomed with open arms. And I made it my own home. Set up myself there. Built shelves in her mind to stack my secrets upon. Placed my dreams in a drawer in the valley of her breast. Locked my soul in a room between her legs. It never occurred to me that she was too young to offer me shelter, it still does not occur to me in fact…_

The house metaphor is one that pops up often. The trouble with Stefan being a teacher of literature is that he is of the mind that everything that leaves his mouth must sound poetic. No matter how many odes he sings of the girl's hair or sonnets he recites about her eyes, I still often wonder at the fact that he does not know how very ridiculous that he sounds. Still I kept giving him cues and asking questions. "When you were kissing her for the first time were you nervous?"

 _Not exactly. As I said before it was a very surreal moment. But there were things about the exchange that kept me rooted firmly in reality. I was calm, alarmingly so. It was because she was so gentle I think, that made me calm. There was no pressure, no tongue, just the soft press of her lips to mine and then she lingered. She lingered so long that I relaxed too much into it, and I dropped my car keys. I've never heard anything so loud in my life as those keys hitting the ground. Then I ran, of course. I wasn't nervous no….not during….but afterward…afterward... By the time I made it to my car I was trembling. Nervous and scared because I knew…I knew it would happen again._

I never respond. I keep my face impartial. Make sure that I don't judge. Not that it would matter if I did. Stefan simply wants someone to listen to him. Someone who will not condemn him or twist his words in the way they have been doing in all of the papers.

However, as I said before Stefan has always been this way with me. I could not tell you why but from the day that we met he has been rather comfortable with tossing out intimate truths about himself and his life. He's always been very frank with me, and though I do not understand it, I am flattered by it. It was the frankness and the intimacy that he shared with the girl that was his undoing.

At the moment I am taking my seat in the court room on the side of the defendant. It is the first day of Stefan's trial and the reporters that have been slandering him are present as well as most of the small unremarkable Virginian town.

I am the only one sitting on Stefan's side of the room outside of Alexia Branson, whom considers herself to be a friend of his. We are the only ones that had stood by him in this, me going as far as to give up my apartment to help him pay his lawyer's fees. Then later I moved into the boarding house after his wife Katherine kicked him out of his home (understandable given the situation) so that he would not be alone.

Much of the town believes that since I have so clearly taken Stefan's side on things that I have some sordid secret of my own. My publically siding with Stefan has left me no choice but to resign from my own position as art teacher at the same school that forced Stefan's resignation once the unfortunate business with the Bennett girl surfaced. I do not mind as I abhor teenagers and meant to strike out on my own with my art just the same.

Alexia taps me on the shoulder and asks after Stefan's well-being. I lie and tell her that he is fine, though I am not sure what sort of answer that she expects under the circumstances. She nods and sits back in her seat just behind me, without further word.

In truth Stefan has not been sleeping well at night. And often he stays up when he says that he is sleep(though he slept well enough last night after I took the liberty of scenting his pillow with vanilla, a necessary evil as he had to be well rested before the trial even if I had to pay a homage to the girl to get it done). I can sometimes hear the scratching of pen across paper and his voice talking to himself through the walls from my own room next door to his. He writes to the Bennett girl, night after night. Letters that he sneaks out in the early hours of the morning and sticks underneath the windshield wiper of her car. He never signs them as if that will reduce suspicion if someone were to see them there, but I suspect it is only due to the neglect and self-absorbedness of the girl's parents (the same neglectful behavior that allowed the affair to take place without their knowledge for so many months) that he has not yet been found out. The girl never writes back to him.

Still Stefan has taken to planning out their future together. I have only been inside of his room a handful of times, and when I entered the first time I made a disturbing discovery. There are lined pieces of paper that he has tapped to his wall, marked with permanent marker and outlining the dates from the moment he met the girl to present and then blank pages with only lines and dashes as if he hopes to one day fill them with more moments in their unfortunate courtship. No, Stefan is not alright, but how do I explain all that is wrong in a courtroom full of people who wish to have his head?

This is not my story. But as I am the one telling it and I am involved in some of the events I am going to describe, I suppose introductions are an order. My name is Niklaus Mikaelson, but you may call me Klaus. (At times my sister, Rebekah and Stefan refer to me as Nik but I tolerate that only because I care for them more than most). I have been living in this small Virginian town at my family's estate known to most a Mikaelson Manor, for the past twelve years. Two years ago I left my family home and purchased a loft apartment just inside the town limits where I lived up until February when this unfortunate business was discovered and Stefan's prosecution started. Before I resigned I was an art teacher at Mystic Falls High School for ten years. I met Stefan Salvatore, eighteen months ago, he was the first friend I had had in fifteen years. He is a twenty-five year old English teacher charged with indecent assault on a minor after being discovered having a sexual affair with one of his students-who was sixteen years old at the time the affair started.

The town has been talking of little else since the affair first came to light. It has received a certain degree of media coverage as well. The reporters use words like "unhealthy" and "monster", things of that nature to describe Stefan, though in reality the only thing that is unhealthy about him is the degree to which he martyrs himself.

They also find some joy in the fact that his wife Katherine Pierce (she never took on his last name), who is ten years his senior, was his own professor at one point in time when they met, as she teaches a course at Whitmore College. Human Sexuality of all things. They speak of his relationship with Katherine as if it were some precursor to the incident with the Bennett girl. Some sign of his deviance.

I used to take the media much more seriously before discovering that reporters and journalist are all idiots, at least speaking of the majority of them. That is why I have taken it upon myself to write a more accurate account of things. As Stefan's confidant and caretaker, there is no one more suitable than I to take on the task.

Stefan is unaware of my plans, he has enough to worry about so I will keep him in the dark about things for now. He will appreciate it I am sure when it is all said and done. I have as I said drawn some media attention myself so this will be for my sake as well as his, and in some ways it will even be for the sake of the girl.

I will be the first to admit that Stefan's account of things is not the most reliable. Though he shoulders all of the responsibility so married is he to his guilt, at the same time he has the irritating habit of romanticizing the relationship. As of late his remorse stems for the fact that the girl is being scrutinized and must be put through the process of his trial and the town being privy to her personal information through him. Other than that, his own actions do not seem to bother him all that much. But as confused and muddled as Stefan's recollection of their "love" is, he is honest to the best of his abilities and so I can say that as far as he knows he is telling the truth about things.

Almost as I write this the girl and her parents walk into the courtroom. Her mother and father look down as if they are the ones on trial and in a way they are. They have been in the process of getting a divorce for some time or so Stefan tells me the girl told him. The father is often out of town and the mother is currently staying with her own mother in a separate home and so the girl was often left alone in the house she shared with her father. A house that Stefan himself has become extremely familiar with.

The parents sit on the prosecutor's side and the girl walks behind them. I am surprised to see her head is held high and there is a look of determination on her face that is almost unnerving. The Forbes girl stands next to her, her hand on the girl's shoulder. They have been friends for some time Stefan told me once. Funny I have never seen them together until this moment. The Bennett girl, whenever I chanced to glance in her direction long enough to pay attention to whom I was looking at, has always been alone.

The girl surprises me further as she does not follow her parents. Instead she takes her seat on Stefan's side next to me (which means I will soon have to stop writing). Still I look at her out of the corner of my eye as her friend hesitates before sitting with her.

I have seen her before as I said, but I have never really _looked_. I see some of it as she looks towards the doors across the room that open to allow Stefan and his lawyer to enter, the beauty that Stefan so often speaks of. She is not as attractive as Stefan (not that I find him to be attractive, only beautiful in the way that most aesthetically pleasing things are) though their eyes are a similar green. But I can see that she is not wanting as far as looks, though her mouth is slightly crooked and her nose is much too small and makes me think of some sort of fey creature.

I glance at her parents and find that though her mother is glaring and her father is rather stiff neither of them have come to fetch their daughter. It is clear whose side the Bennett girl is on in this and the whispers coming from the townspeople around us who were shouting about her stolen innocence and labeling her tainted only days before are _very_ telling.

Stefan looks put together in every sense of the word even with the ongoing whispers around the room. I would credit his suddenly looking much less haggard than he has since the ordeal began to the new suit I took the liberty of purchasing for him, for the purposes of the trial and the fact that I forced him to shave this morning, but it is clear what has lifted his spirits enough for him to appear human rather than stray animal. His eyes become bright and alive as he sees the Bennett girl as if she has been the one at his side these weeks and not I. As Stefan takes his seat he looks right at the girl and smiles. It is a rather idiotic thing to do considering what he is on trial for but I resist the urge to roll my eyes at him, though it _is_ nice to see him smile.

The Bennett girl smiles in return though she is fidgeting with her hands in a way that makes me think of swatting her as if she were a fly. Stefan needs her calmness at the moment, she is usually a very put together brave faced girl when she is being swarmed by reporters, walking pass them calmly without comment.

I suppose I expected her to be shielded by her parents on the prosecutor's side of the room but she has surprised more than me by taking Stefan's side so her action might very well be what is responsible for her nerves. The Forbes girl is of no help, her eyes are darting around the room quickly and she looks only seconds away from leaving the Bennett girl's side. Alexia touches the girl's shoulder from behind and Bennett jumps and begins to chew on her bottom lip.

Stefan turns slightly and frowns at the Bennett girl sympathetically. He gives me the most pleading look I have ever seen before his lawyer forces him to turn around again and whispers admonishingly in his ear. I understand as Stefan is being rather stupid, but really the man _needn't_ be so _close_ in order to tell him so.

I glance down at the Bennett girl as she begins to tap her heeled feet against the floor.

Sighing I place my free hand over hers to stop her movements, but she sees it as a gesture of comfort. She freezes altogether, except both of her hands now clutch one of mine. She smiles at me as she glances over, mimics my posture her body now confident and erect. I catch the soft scent of vanilla and frown. She squeezes my hand before letting it go and then she pulls something out of the pocket of the pencil skirt she is wearing. A letter, folded but I can still see the faint outlines of Stefan's handwriting. She places the small paper in between her hands, folds her hands together, places them in her lap, and stares at Stefan's back as the judge enters the room.

"He looks good," she leans over and whispers to me her eyes still forward, "He hasn't been sleeping I can tell but you've taken good care of him. He said you would. Thank you, Mr. Mikaelson."

She leans back over toward the Forbes girl and whispers something that seems to calm her. Inexplicably something shifts and she stops being the Bennett girl in my mind and I suddenly think of her as Bonnie. Perhaps I could talk to her as I talk to Stefan, it will be good for her to tell her side of things, make my account more accurate. It does Stefan good I think, talking to me. And perhaps I will finally understand why it is that he chose her.


	2. One

**Title:** Notes on a Scandal

 **Rating:** M

 **Genre:** AU All Human

 **Pairing(s):** Bonnie/Stefan, Klaus/Stefan, Bonnie/Klaus, Bonnie/Stefan/Klaus, Stefan/Katherine, Caroline/Matt, Tyler/Vicki, mentions of past Bonnie/Mason, Klaus/Marcel, ect.

 **Summary:** Schoolteacher Niklaus Mikaelson has led a solitary life until Stefan Salvatore, the new English teacher at Mystic Falls High School, befriends him and takes him on as a confidante. But as their relationship develops, so does another as Stefan begins an illicit affair with an underage student, Bonnie Bennett. When the affair is discovered Klaus decides to write an account of the events in his friend's defense— through which it is revealed that his intentions with this "friend" go well beyond platonic friendship. Things become further complicated when Klaus' obsession extends to Bonnie during Stefan's trial.

 **Warnings:** Infidelity, Sexual Content, Non-Canon, Polyamourous Relationships, OOC Behavior, etc.

 **One**

" _Things that are truly innocent don't need to be labelled as such."_

― Zoë Heller, What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal]

 _ **Mystic Falls, Virginia**_

 _ **November, 2008**_

The first time that Stefan Salvatore saw Bonnie Bennett was on a warm autumn day when the leaves had just begun to fall from the trees. It was the first day he was to teach at Mystic Falls High School. His wife Katherine Pierce was friends with school's principle and acquired the position for Stefan when the old English teacher decided to go into retirement.

In truth, at the time, Stefan had been attempting to write a book. However, Katherine had been firmly of the mind that he could do his "scribbling" in his down time. So when the job came he had no real choice but to take the opportunity.

The first day that he was to teach, Stefan had arrived at the school with a trunk full of books and what little excitement he had managed to scare up at the thought of teaching.

As he pulled into the faculty lot, his eyes roamed over the students that passed. He was slightly intimidated. It was not so long ago that he was their age. That he had been thinking the way that they thought, and so he knew how difficult these kids could make his life if they so chose to.

As he got out of his car and walked around to his trunk and opened it, he whistled a tune that he had heard his mother hum once when he was very young. Katherine didn't like the whistling, and if his day didn't get any better, at the very least he had managed to whistle without getting shot down by some snide remark.

He took his time stacking all of the books just so. Different reading material for the different classes and grades he would be teaching. He knew that there was an easier way that it could be done. Or that he could even wait to bring each book in right when they would be reading it, but Stefan liked to have hard copies of things. He liked the feel of the books in his hands. He liked the written word to be a _tangible_ thing. Something that no one around him had ever seemed to understand.

He managed to stack his books just so, shoulder his messenger's bag, and close the trunk of the car without incident. However, as he rounded the vehicle and stepped onto the sidewalk, one of the students knocked into him as they passed and sent his stack of books toppling over onto the ground.

The person didn't even stop to give Stefan a second glance and he frowned as he knelt down to pick up the books. People continued to walk around him and it did absolutely nothing to reassure Stefan about his choice to take the position at the school.

Then suddenly he was hit very hard with the scent of vanilla as a small brown hand reached out and picked up one of the books that he had been reaching for. When he looked up at the hand's occupant that was when their eyes met for the first time.

Much later Stefan would describe the experience as looking into a bright light and seeing an angel once the light cleared. She was beautiful in a nontraditional way. There was something more about her. Beyond the heart shape of her face. Beyond the slightly crooked mouth. Beyond the dark curly hair. Beyond the bright smile. Something more that drew him in and made him forget where he was and why he was there.

"You must be the new Lit teacher," she had said, as she helped him restack his books, "No one else would have this good of taste books and bother to carry them around on top of it."

Stefan had smiled as he stood with his books in hand. "I had hoped I wouldn't be so obvious," he said, "But clearly I've failed."

"You do look young enough to pass for a student if that makes you feel any better," she said, "And you're not too bad on the eyes so the girl's will go easy on you at least." She took half of the stack of books from his hands and turned toward the school, the skirt of her midnight blue dress flying up slightly as she did so. "You got a name?" She asked.

Stefan cleared his throat as he began to walk in step with her. "Stefan Salvatore," he replied.

" _Mr._ Salvatore to me," she said. That was it then, she was a student. Off limits. Even more off limits than she already was given the fact that he was married. "My name is Bonnie Bennett," she smiled, "I'm probably the nicest person that you will meet all day."

"I don't doubt that," Stefan said as he glanced over at her. She was dangerous. He was becoming too comfortable with her already. Too comfortable with the fact that he wanted her as well. Because that was what this was. He was familiar with desire. He read about it. Had written about it. Had felt it. Therefore he also knew how to tamper it down. How to brush it aside.

"What room do they have you imprisoned in?" Bonnie asked, breaking into his thoughts.

As she gave him a once over, he felt good about his choice to dress casually. Jeans, button down black shirt, boots, and leather jacket. Then he frowned at the thought of himself silently seeking her approval.

Things weren't going the greatest with him and his wife but that didn't give him an excuse to covet a student. Still he had never been so taken with someone so quickly, not even the woman that he had married.

"Two twenty five," Stefan answered, once he came out of his own head long enough to remember that she had asked him a question.

"I should probably give you some tips since it _is_ your first day," Bonnie said, as they entered the school.

People seemed to notice her immediately. Waving and smiling in greeting. She was popular and that didn't surprise him. She had an easy way about her. She seemed open and approachable.

"Sorry," she said, once they had cleared the crowd, "Comes with the whole cheerleading thing."

Stefan coughed, as the sudden image of her in a cheerleading uniform appeared in his mind's eye. "You were saying something about tips," he said, trying to change the subject.

"Right," she giggled, "Well first never expect anyone to actually read anything you assign them. That way you can be pleasantly surprised when they do."

"Noted," Stefan nodded laughing a little, his nervousness from before having ebbed some.

"Don't let them intimidate you or they'll eat you alive," Bonnie continued, "If you eat lunch here and don't bring anything from home then you should always steer clear of the meatloaf. It never ends well."

"No meatloaf," Stefan nodded, as they stopped in front of the classroom that Stefan was meant to make use of, "Got it."

Bonnie opened the door and the two walked inside.

"Any other gems?" Stefan asked as he set down the stack of books in his hands on the desk in the front of the room.

Bonnie nodded. "Just a few," she said, as she placed her own stack of books on the desk stop. She adjusted the black cardigan she was wearing over her dress as she stood upright. "Never let anyone insult your taste in literature," she said, "And if you are looking to make friends among the staff you should maybe….try Mr. Mikaelson. He's a bit prickly around the edges but….he's lonely, so even if he's an asshole at first, he likely won't turn you away. Besides, for some reason, the students like him so they'll like you by extension."

"Am I supposed to give you a detention or something for calling a fellow teacher an asshole?" Stefan asked.

Bonnie grinned as she began to back out of the room. "Maybe," she said, "But I was nice to you so you should let me off easy. Unless it's detention with _you_ of course. We could discuss Nabokov and his obsession with ephebophilia."

Stefan frowned and cleared his throat. So she had noticed his interest in her then. That didn't bode well for any future interactions. "I'll let you off," he said, " _This time_."

"Thank you, Mr. Salvatore," Bonnie smiled, as she tugged on the straps of the backpack he hadn't noticed she was wearing until that moment, "And good luck today."

"Luck is believing you're lucky," Stefan responded.

Bonnie laughed. "A Streetcar Named Desire," she said, "Tennessee Williams. Right?" Stefan nodded and she could tell that he was surprised that she was familiar with the play. "I knew that I would like you," she nodded, to herself, before looking back up at him, "You'll be great."

Stefan watched her walk away and as the door shut behind her he was simultaneously relieved and disappointed all at once.

 **:::**

Stefan did not have the privilege of meeting Mr. Mikaelson until lunch time came and he found himself in the teacher's lounge being introduced to the rest of the faculty by the principle, Pearl Johnson.

He had had three classes by then. One of which, Bonnie was in and they had all gone surprisingly smoothly. Though, he was sure that his favoritism toward Bonnie was showing already. He had called on her to answer almost every question he asked whether she had raised her hand or not. Partially because he liked the smooth and steady sound of her voice and partially because the answers she gave in relation to the book they had been reading under that last teach, To Kill A Mockingbird of all things, had been very smart, interesting and well beyond the level of analysis that Stefan thought someone still in high school should be capable of. She reminded him of himself in that way. He had been the same way during his own high school years which was what had gotten him in to writing in the first place.

He would have to get himself under control he knew. But as it was not something he normally had a problem with, he wasn't sure how to go about solving the issue.

Mikaelson was sitting at the table closest to the windows. His head down, sketching some of the landscape on the school grounds. In spite of Bonnie's warning he seemed to be the only real prospect as far as friendly faculty went. The only other options were women who eyed Stefan hungrily in a way that made him uncomfortable and Alaric Saltzman.

Before Stefan had even entered the room, Alaric had been the first voice that he had heard, laughing too loud at an inappropriate joke that he had made that was not all that funny. He tried to ingratiate himself to Stefan right off, but there was something about him that was off putting that Stefan could not put his finger on.

So after the principal had made the introductions, Stefan had walked over to Mr. Mikaelson, prepared to introduce himself.

Stefan stood in front of the table in which he sat and smiled down at him. "May I sit down?" He asked.

Stefan was not used to being rejected. In general he was well-liked by everyone he came across. So he was a little put out when he was met with silence. He was about to turn and leave when the man finally spoke, though he still didn't look up from what he was doing.

"You have an ass," the man said, "And there is a chair there and so I suppose that you may."

Stefan had laughed, and sat down anyway. "My name is Stefan Salvatore," he said, as he settled in his seat, "I am the new English teacher."

"I'm not deaf," Mr. Mikaelson commented, "I heard you being introduced just now."

Stefan could understand how Bonnie could label the man as an asshole. He was almost startled when the man finally looked up at him and gave him a rather assessing look. "My name is Niklaus Mikaelson," he said, after a moment, "You may decipher for yourself what you wish to call me but most around here call me Klaus outside of the students. I should warn you, if you plan to align yourself with me, I am not a well-liked man. You would do well to befriend another member of the faculty."

Stefan stared down at the lunch he had packed for a moment before he looked up again. "I have it on good authority that you are the one to befriend," he said, "Even if you do come off as an asshole."

There was a smirk, followed by an expression that Stefan could not read, before the man began to continue his sketching. "I teach art," he said, "Most creative minds are known to be temperamental. As one who teaches literature I am sure that you are aware of that." Stefan didn't respond as he took his turkey sandwich from his brown paper bag. "Are you liking the position so far?" Klaus asked.

Stefan shrugged. "I'm not sure," he said, "It's alright but not what I would like to be doing. I'm only here because my wife wants me to be. She got me the position because she got tired of me trying and failing to write a book. She doesn't understand that these things take time. But she says that I am too smart not to be doing something constructive with my mind. She should know, she _was_ my professor once. She also says that I could write anytime. She's right I suppose. But still, I'm not really a teacher."

"You talk a lot," Klaus said, "A simple yes or no answer would have sufficed." He waited, for the moment when Stefan would get offended and walk away but it never came. The other man simply laughed as he bit into his sandwich.

"It's a bad habit of mine," he said, "I like to tell stories. When I can't tell them on paper I am usually running off at the mouth."

Klaus nodded. "I can see that," he said. There was another long silence before he next spoke. "You should find something that you like about this place," he advised, "If not it can suck the soul right out of you. Particularly if you don't wish to be here."

Stefan began to pick at his sandwich as he debated on whether or not he should mention the one angel he had found amidst the brick walls and teenage cynicism. "There has been one bright spot in my day," he said, leaning in and speaking lowly, "A student."

"A student?" Klaus asked, raising an eyebrow.

Stefan nodded. "She's very enthusiastic about literature," he said.

Klaus finally put his pencil down and seemed to eye Stefan with a new sort of fascination. "She?"

Again Stefan nodded. "Her name is Bonnie Bennett," he said, "Very bright and bubbly. Has one of those smiles that you can't help returning."

"I know who she is," Klaus said, going back to drawing, a small frown on his face. The girl had been in his class for the past two years. She had no talent for drawing or anything pertaining to art. Still she was all chipper words and happy smiles. Always fluttering about with the other cheerleaders, reminding Klaus of a butterfly, pretty to look at but small and without much substance. "I don't like many people," Klaus said, looking up at Stefan again, "but you seem to be a nice enough person. If you are going to teach you should understand something. These students are like a pack of wild dogs most of the time. If you focus too hard on one, the others will blindside you with an attack. Don't let yourself be manipulated or taken advantage of. You are not here to make friends. You are here to _teach_."

"I've been friends with lots of teachers," Stefan said, his guilt over his thoughts of Bonnie prompting him to defend himself.

"And you said that your wife was your teacher," Klaus reminded him, "You grew friendly enough with her to marry her."

"That was different," Stefan said, "She saw something in me. Or rather I thought she did."

Klaus shrugged. "Whatever the case may be," he said, "Gray areas do not exist for students and teachers. Things are and have always been black and white."

Stefan looked around and was relieved to note that none of the other teachers were listening into their conversation. "If I cannot befriend the students and I must find something to like here," Stefan said, "Maybe I'll just befriend you instead." Stefan noted when Klaus, stiffened a moment, but he didn't say anything. "Would you mind if I ate lunch with you tomorrow?" Stefan smiled.

As Klaus looked up at him, Stefan saw something akin to apprehension in his eyes. "If you wish," he said, after a moment.

Stefan nodded and took another bite of his sandwich. Even though Klaus had advised him to be careful, he was already planning on how he would thank Bonnie for giving him advice.

 **:::**

The day that Stefan had started teaching was one of those days when Bonnie didn't want to go home. Her father was out of town and her mother was who knew where and Bonnie didn't like being in the house alone. Eating alone. Watching television alone. Having no one to say good night to.

She should have been used to it she supposed. However, one never really grew accustomed to loneliness. It was more of being able to feel it but knowing that there was nothing that could be done about it.

Instead of going home, she had come out to eat at Mystic Grill with her friends, but still she felt as if she wasn't there. Caroline Forbes was playing pool with Matt Donovan and she suspected that Tyler Lockwood and Matt's sister were fucking in the bathroom as they had been gone too long for anything else to be going on.

That left Bonnie alone at their table, picking at the French fries she had ordered, still eating alone in a crowd full of people. It wasn't as if she had no one. She had a thing with Tyler's uncle Mason. But Mason had never had any intention of making their thing public and they never really talked. They had sex every once in a while and that was it. And it happened mostly during times when Bonnie was too drunk to use her better judgment.

She was tired of him anyway. He wasn't what Bonnie wanted. She wanted to be someone's poetry. She wanted to be all that mattered. She wanted to be in love and not in lust. She wanted someone to look at her and actually see her. Actually want to get to know her. But it seemed that those things were reserve for girls like Caroline and even girls like Vicki Donovan. While, Tyler was as much of an asshole as his uncle, at least he took Vicky out in public. He knew things about her. He cared even though he pretended not to.

No one had ever felt the way about Bonnie that they seemed all too willing to feel about the people around her. She was sure that she would never feel that feeling and that was why she let people like Mason take advantage of her. That was why she did more for her friends than they ever did for her. That was why she never complained when her parents fought, or her father left town, or her mother came home so late at night it was almost the next morning.

She was complacent because loneliness was the alternative and she could not stand being alone.

The dark turn that her thoughts had taken, caused Bonnie to stand and leave the restaurant. She walked through the crowd and out the door not noticing where she was going. It wasn't until she bumped into someone that she bothered to pay any really attention to what was in front of her. As she looked up she was surprised to see that she had run into Stefan Salvatore just as he was walking inside.

She smiled as she moved to walk around him. While he had been fun to tease earlier that day, she was in no mood to do so now. "Hey, Mr. Salvatore," she greeted, ready to be on her way as he nodded his head in greeting.

She had almost made it past him when he called out after her. "Bonnie," he said, "Is something wrong?"

Bonnie frowned as she turned back to him. She was good at hiding her emotions. Always had been. She prided herself on being hard to read. She never wanted anyone to be able to see how the neglect and solitude affected her. She was bright Bonnie. Reliable Bonnie. Sweet Bonnie. Dependable Bonnie. No one had been able to see through that. So for a moment she thought that she had misheard him. "I'm fine," she said.

"You sure?" Stefan pressed, his eyes boring into her in a way that made her squirm. He seemed as if he actually cared, as if he really wanted to know if she was alright and if not, the reason behind her troubles. "We could go for a walk," he offered, "Talk. If you want."

Bonnie frowned, shaking her head. It was an odd request, and she had been used and abandon too many times not to question his motives. "I don't think that would be appropriate, Mr. Salvatore," she said, "And besides, I'm kind of busy. I don't have time to go for a walk. No stopping by the woods for me. _The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep_."

Stefan gave her an odd sort of smile. "Robert Frost," he whispered.

Bonnie laughed, shaking her head. "Nothing gets past you, Salvatore," she said. Bonnie had always read a lot. There wasn't much else to do with all the time she spent by herself. Normally people weren't amused when she quoted poems, plays, and books at them. She chalked it up to the subject that he taught and turned to leave once more. "Goodnight, Mr. Salvatore."

"Wait," Stefan protested, and so she did. She turned and waited. For the longest time he just stared at her. Gazed, perhaps was a better word. It was an odd thing to behold. Him staring, and nervously playing with the wedding band on his finger. "I was thinking about…," there was a pause, a clearing of the throat, and then, "I thought that maybe I could start a book club. Some kind of after school program. You seem to have a passion for the written word...and I thought maybe other students might as well. Do you think it would be something that people could get into?"

Bonnie looked at him a moment. Perhaps it was because he seemed to care whether or not she was alright. Or maybe it was because she was sure that when he looked at her, he actually saw her. Whatever the case, Bonnie felt something shift inside of her. Something moved out of herself and gravitated toward him. It was the weirdest thing she had ever felt and she knew that it was stupid. He wasn't Mason, who was the family fuck up with nothing to lose. He was a new teacher. He was married. He was a nice guy, whom everyone at school had liked right off. He wasn't someone she should be drawn to. And yet… "I have some pull," she said, "I'm a cheerleader. People like me. If I'm into it. People will be into it."

He nodded. "Good," he said.

There was silence. Not an uncomfortable silence. A silence that was not heavy, but was still tense just the same. "Goodnight, Mr. Salvatore," she said, again needing to break into the quiet.

"Goodnight, Bonnie," he answered.

Bonnie walked away then, telling herself that she wouldn't look back. However, when she made it to her car she did. She looked back and he was still there. Watching. Seeing her.

 **:::**

That night Stefan lay awake in bed next to his wife, unable to sleep. It was an odd thing. He felt detached. Detached from his life. Detached from his wife. Detached from his reality. It seemed that the only thoughts that were keeping him grounded were the thoughts of Bonnie.

He should quit his job. He knew that that would be the smartest course of action. Eliminate the problem, before it became a problem.

Or perhaps he should spend time with her. This draw, this pull, this attraction. Whatever it was, it would dull in time. It would have to, wouldn't it? He only wanted to know more about her, because he knew nothing. He was only interested in her, because she was a mystery to him. Once he learned things, there would be nothing left to fixate on. Nothing left for him to wonder about. There would only be a girl, his student. She would blend in with the rest of the students that wandered the halls, none of whom had caught his eye the way that she had.

Stefan stiffened as he felt his wife touch his arm. They had not eaten together. Had not gotten ready for bed together. Had not spent any time with one another all day. That was normally how it went with them. She always had a class to teach, a workshop to go to, a conference to speak at, and he would always see her long enough for her to ask him what it was he wanted to do with his life. For her to exercise her control over him. For her to make him feel small, like he was that wide eyed student again that was so taken in and beguiled by his professor. By her intelligence and her beauty. He had idolized her then. Thought that she knew everything there was to know about anything. He had learned since then that no one knew everything, it was just that Katherine thought that she did.

"Are you awake?" Katherine asked, and his first thought was to fake sleep. But he knew that she would be able to tell. She could always tell. She could always read him.

"Yeah," he whispered back and waited. Waited to see what it was that she wanted. They were never physical unless she initiated. They never talked unless she was the first to speak. Their entire relationship was on her terms. That had been fine in the beginning when he was young and in awe of her. But now he was growing into himself, becoming a different person. Now he wanted a voice, he just didn't know how to say so.

"How was your first day?" Katherine asked.

What was he to say?

 _It was good. I met a girl that reminds me what it's like to be alive. She's a student. My student. She smells like vanilla and she smiles more than you. And….I made a friend. He is somber and sarcastic. He doesn't seem to talk to anyone or like anyone but I find him easier to approach than you. Easier to talk to than you. He thinks that I should stay away from the girl and I think so too. But I won't. Because her hair is the color of raven's feathers and she can quote Robert Frost without sounding pretentious._

"Fine," he said aloud, "I did alright. The kids like me. I like the school."

"You see," Katherine said, her hand running down his arm and then back up again, "You should listen to me. Things are always better for you when you listen to me."

His mouth pinched shut and he tensed. There was a time that he had consulted her in everything and she was still able to exercise that control. He hated that she did it, as much as he hated that he let her.

Then a thought occurred to him. Something that he had mentioned to Bonnie. "I was thinking," he said, "Of maybe, starting a book club. Giving the students something to do after school."

There was a pause and Stefan knew that she was thinking. "Well," she said, "I usually get home late so it'll give you something to do too. I like the idea, and it might win you some points with the students and faculty."

"If _you_ think that it's a good idea," Stefan said, as he smiled into the darkness. He wouldn't mind listening to his wife in this instance, he would not mind it at all.

 **:::**

The next day Stefan ate lunch with Klaus again. This time the man actually ate with him. They were quiet. The teacher's lounge was empty. Stefan was in deep thought and Klaus noted that he was in deep thought nearly every moment since Klaus had met him. This did not surprise Klaus as most writers considered themselves to be deep thinkers.

"Nik," Stefan said after a moment, then frowned, and then continued, "May I call you Nik? It sounds better on the tongue than Klaus."

Klaus frowned as he picked over the linguini he had left over from dinner the night before. "My sister calls me Nik," he said, after a while. Not giving Stefan permission but not denying him either.

"Nik," Stefan, repeated. He waited until the man's blue eyes looked at him and he knew he had his full attention. "Have you ever resented someone, without knowing exactly why you resent them?"

"I have resented many people," Klaus answered, "I always know why." His tone was disinterested but he had a feeling that Stefan would persist in talking. He wished that he could ignore the man, but with Stefan's green eyes looking at him so imploringly and the frown lines marring his forehead, he could not bring himself to look away.

"I resent my wife," Stefan said, "I don't know why. Or maybe I know but I don't want to know."

"Do you make it a habit of telling your marital secrets to people within the first few days of knowing them?" Klaus' tone was mocking, but Stefan didn't blink.

"No," he shrugged, "but I find you easy to talk to. You're very straight forward. I like that."

Klaus frowned. There were people who had liked things about him before. It never lasted for long. "How are your classes going so far?" Klaus asked, changing the subject.

"Great," Stefan nodded, "I've even gotten permission to start an afterschool program. A book club of sorts. Bonnie…is helping me recruit members."

"The Bennett girl?" Klaus asked, raising an eyebrow at him, "Didn't you mention her before?" Klaus already knew that he had. He had always had a good memory. Ever since he was young, he was able to remember things and to read people.

"She's a smart girl," Stefan said, "I just think that she could blossom with some help. Maybe she could even write one day, as much as she loves to read. I know you said there was no gray area in terms of teaching and you're right. The matter is black and white. I am simply a teacher who sees potential in his student. That's it. There isn't anything wrong with that. It's perfectly innocent."

"Things that are innocent don't usually need to be labelled as such," Klaus commented, as he took a sip from the mug of tea in front of him.

"You're the one who mentioned not getting too close to students," Stefan reminded him, "I just thought, since we're going to be friends, I might put your mind at ease."

Klaus looked at him for a long moment. His eyes seeming to ask a question that Stefan didn't understand. "Are we? Are we going to be friends, Stefan?"

Stefan nodded. "I think so," he said. A shadow passed over Klaus' face, making Stefan think that there was some truth in Bonnie's sentiment that the man was lonely.

"And so we will," Klaus said, after a moment. He nodded to himself as Stefan continued eating, hoping that he was successfully able to hide the vulnerability that was there just beneath the surface.


	3. An Intrusion: Tea for Two

**Title:** Notes on a Scandal

 **Rating:** M

 **Genre:** AU All Human

 **Pairing(s):** Bonnie/Stefan, Klaus/Stefan, Bonnie/Klaus, Bonnie/Stefan/Klaus, Stefan/Katherine, Caroline/Matt, Tyler/Vicki, mentions of past Bonnie/Mason, Klaus/Marcel, ect.

 **Summary:** Schoolteacher Niklaus Mikaelson has led a solitary life until Stefan Salvatore, the new English teacher at Mystic Falls High School, befriends him and takes him on as a confidante. But as their relationship develops, so does another as Stefan begins an illicit affair with an underage student, Bonnie Bennett. When the affair is discovered Klaus decides to write an account of the events in his friend's defense— through which it is revealed that his intentions with this "friend" go well beyond platonic friendship. Things become further complicated when Klaus' obsession extends to Bonnie during Stefan's trial.

 **Warnings:** Infidelity, Sexual Content, Non-Canon, Polyamourous Relationships, OOC Behavior, etc.

 **An Intrusion: Tea for Two**

The first day of the trial went by as smoothly as one could hope. However, I don't expect it to continue to be so as when an educator beds his pupil, no matter the age, smooth is not really to be expected.

Though, I had come to think of the girl as Bonnie in my mind it was not until the third day of the trial that I was able to see the girl outside of the courtroom.

By then Stefan had already placed his not guilty plea and so the trial had turned from something that could be over rather quickly, to something that would be long and laborious to endure.

 _Nik you must understand. Guilt implies that I have done something wrong. What wrong is there in falling in love? Why should I apologize for that? I can't show remorse when she is sitting right there behind me, braving all of that ridicule. Did you see her there? So calm. So brave. So perfect._

I am unsure how he thinks that I am unable to see her. I have not suddenly gone blind and she has sat herself next to me every day of the trial thus far. She sees me as safe. A fact that I find to be ironic as in my past dealings with others I have been labeled such things as "intense" and "fixated". Neither of which is true of course. It is just that some people do not take well to being well looked after, well cared for. Not like Stefan who takes after it very well.

 _I don't know what I would do without you. You are a good friend. A rare find._

Though, I would appreciate Stefan's sentiments much more without the flowery language I have to say that I agree with them. Who else would brave this at his side? Who else would learn the small details that make him up to insure that he does not cease to function? Bonnie at the least seems to try, for which I must rather grudgingly pay her the smallest amount of respect. However, her methods are a bit idiotic.

You see, the night of the third day of the trial the nymph (that is what I have taken to calling her when I am not calling her sprite) decided to sneak out of her humble abode and over to ours.

 _He isn't sleeping_ , she said by way of explanation when I opened the door to find her standing in the rain, _with me here he'll sleep._

She was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap as if it were some sort of disguise. Ridiculous, the girl is. I wanted to ask her how she expected to get him to sleep. Faith, trust, and pixie dust; I supposed. But instead of inquiring I simply stepped aside and allowed her to enter.

Stefan was pleased to see her of course. Not thinking at all of the consequences of her being there. They embraced immediately. Kissed. Touched.

For Stefan the act of touch is a sort of art form. Something he has mastered because he has the habit of being overly affectionate. The sprite is starved for affection it seems so in that way they are quite the pair. Quite the idiotic pair.

When Stefan touched her, he was careful to caress any expanse of exposed skin. Careful movement of lips and fingers. Kisses fluttering down her neck like the wings of little birds. Open and worshipful, in the most disdainful of ways. It was fascinating to watch, even as I wanted so much to look away.

And she, the sprite, clung to him. Gripped him so tightly that I could see the indents of her nails in his arm, when her hands moved to the back of his neck. One would think that she had never been touched. That she had been left in her crib as a child and had spent all of her seventeen years waiting to be picked up and held.

He immediately used the dampness of her clothes as an excuse to get her out of them. It did not surprise me as I was aware of the sexual nature of their relationship. Still I had to wonder at how comfortable they felt to touch and kiss in front of me. It was a wonder they did not get caught sooner, if this was their attitude toward public physical intimacy.

She did get him to sleep however, for which I was grateful. They had gone into his room, to get her dry clothes he had said, though I had no doubt they were up to the same thing that got Stefan arrested in the first place.

I attempted to read a book as the hours passed. Attempted to ignore the faint sounds that could still be heard, from the living room down stairs. Attempted to concentrate and keep myself from going upstairs to listen to the soft declarations of love that Stefan always said would come after they parted. I managed to get through a whole five pages some six hours later when the sprite skipped down stairs.

 _He's sleeping_ , she informed me, _though he will soon wake if I don't go back upstairs. He always knows when I leave him, you see. He feels it when I am not next to him, almost the moment I'm no longer there._

"If that is the case," I inquired, "Then why are you down here?"

She shifted, looking entirely too small in the button down pin stripped top to the pajama set that I had purchased Stefan for Christmas.

 _I wanted to talk to you_ , she said, her tone speaking as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

And so we went into the kitchen and sat at the table and Bonnie talked. And talked. And talked at length.

I have come to find that Bonnie is an odd thing. An extremely odd thing. She has an exceeding amount of intelligence and uses none of it. She is blindingly loyal, yet outside of Stefan she wastes it on worthless people. She is very bright. Not as in smart (though as I said she is intelligent). She is bright like one of those irksome florescent lights in a hospital. I cannot help but wince and look away when she smiles at me. Stefan finds her smile beguiling. To me it is unnerving.

Still I managed to hide my discomfort as we sat together across from each other and talked our knees touching rather uncomfortably under the table. Or rather she talked. I listened. She didn't really say much of anything. She has the habit of talking around things so one has to guess her meaning. For example I offered to get her a cup of coffee to which she replied, "I don't drink coffee." It took me another five minutes to get her to tell me what it was she actually wished to drink. Tea.

I prefer tea myself, but her preference of it to me seemed rather juvenile. Still I managed to get tea for us both. As I took my place across from her she began to speak of her parents in very vague terms.

 _They are good people. My parents. People doubt that… but they are. Then again I don't know them very well. But they are still good people. What I did…what happened had nothing to do with them_.

How difficult would it have been for her to say that her parents were neglectful? That she loved them but did not like them very much. For that was essentially what she was saying. Bonnie's vagueness made me miss Stefan's bluntness. After a while I couldn't stomach it any longer and finally asked, "Have you ever in your life said anything _outright_?"

I thought that she would be offended. That her blinding light would flicker. It did not. She smiled and shrugged as she clutched her cup. She seemed to think on it even so.

 _When I told Stefan I loved him for the first time I was very blunt. I just kind of blurted it out. And there was the time….when he first arrived…that I suggested he be friends with you. You seemed lonely, I told him. I guess he took my advice._

What does the girl know about loneliness? She could not possibly know. She is barely seventeen. And yet she has it in her to declare me lonely.

As I said, before Stefan it was fifteen years since I had considered anyone to be a true friend. The last person. He was in many ways Stefan's antithesis. Very confident. Very charming. Quick wit. Silver tongue. He saw me as a mentor of sorts…I suppose. Things were well between us, until he took up with my sister. After that things became rather strained.

Marcellus his name was. Marcellus Gerard. It was said that we were too close. Far too close. I suppose that we were, because when we weren't close anymore I felt it more than anything I have ever felt. That is what true loneliness is. The feeling of not having something that you once possessed. That is something a high school girl could never understand.

Perhaps that is why I responded in the way that I did. Usually I am much more controlled. But something in the way that she presumed to know me put me on edge. "I do not like you very much," I told her, "Not _at all_ in fact."

She surprised me by laughing. She did not seem at all offended in fact. She remained bright. Infuriatingly bright. "Is that amusing to you?" I asked.

 _Was it not supposed to be? Was I meant to fall apart or burst into tears? It's obvious I hit a nerve. You're funny. Stefan never said that you were funny. You don't mean to be. But you are._

She doesn't mean to be a nuisance but she is. A little pixie nuisance with too small a nose and too crooked a mouth.

"Why would you tell Stefan to be friends with me?" I asked, after a moment.

She took a sip from her cup and sighed. She seemed to be debating with herself over whether she should answer. She was not like Stefan who spilled his darkest secrets on a whim.

 _I will be blunt. Since you demand it. As I said before, I knew you were lonely. I used to watch you sometimes. I had a crush on you for a while before Stefan came, you see. I have this thing about older men. When Stefan came I had just ended this thing with Tyler Lockwood's uncle Mason. I had thought it would be fun to tease him at first but then…Stefan is different. Different than anyone I have ever been with._

An odd thing she was. A bright little nymph with a dark little past. A past full of older men and daddy issues.

"How was Stefan different than the others?" I asked, "What was it that made him so special?" Special enough for her to uproot his life.

 _Most people when they look at me I feel like they don't see me. I'm invisible to my parents. My friends can only see me as good reliable Bonnie. And Mason saw me as an easy lay. Stefan is the only person who ever looked at me as if I mattered._

It was something so simple and so layered. That was what she was. Both simple and layered. I could not bring myself to understand it.

We were silent and in the silence I wrote. She asked me what I was writing. "A fairy tale," I told her, "About a prince." Stefan. "A pixie." Bonnie. "And a troll." Myself.

She looked at me in a knowing way that made me feel translucent. "Does he live under a bridge? This troll?"

"Yes," I nodded, "One of his own making."

She frowned, the light dimming for the first time as she studied me. Then she stood saying that Stefan would wake up soon. Just as the words left her lips we heard movements from upstairs.

"I better get up there," she said, walking around the table.

She stopped next to my chair as she left. I looked up at her expectantly and she leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. I was disturbed that the act did not disturb me. Touching usually bothers me. But all I could think was that her lips were soft like Stefan said. Soft and warm. "I do not like to be touched," I told her just the same.

That maddening laugh was my only response. "Of course you don't," she said, as she left.

Yes, she is a peculiarity. But I must say, she seems to understand Stefan. She appears to make him happy. And well…the troll….the troll could sometimes use a little light under his bridge.


	4. Two

**Title:** Notes on a Scandal

 **Rating:** M

 **Genre:** AU All Human

 **Pairing(s):** Bonnie/Stefan, Klaus/Stefan, Bonnie/Klaus, Bonnie/Stefan/Klaus, Stefan/Katherine, Caroline/Matt, Tyler/Vicki, mentions of past Bonnie/Mason, Klaus/Marcel, ect.

 **Summary:** Schoolteacher Niklaus Mikaelson has led a solitary life until Stefan Salvatore, the new English teacher at Mystic Falls High School, befriends him and takes him on as a confidante. But as their relationship develops, so does another as Stefan begins an illicit affair with an underage student, Bonnie Bennett. When the affair is discovered Klaus decides to write an account of the events in his friend's defense— through which it is revealed that his intentions with this "friend" go well beyond platonic friendship. Things become further complicated when Klaus' obsession extends to Bonnie during Stefan's trial.

 **Warnings:** Infidelity, Sexual Content, Non-Canon, Polyamourous Relationships, OOC Behavior, etc.

 **Two**

" _...what is romance, but a mutual pact of delusion? When the pact ends, there's nothing left."_

― _Zoë Heller, Notes on a Scandal_

 _ **Mystic Falls, Virginia**_

 _ **December, 2008**_

Bonnie Bennett abhorred breakups. Particularly when there had never been an actual relationship in the first place. She wasn't sure what to say when Mason called her anymore so she had just stopped answering the phone. Then he had had the nerve to ask Tyler what her deal was and she had ended up telling him that nothing was wrong and that she was just tired of being his uncle's fuck buddy. The response from her friends was to leave her alone so that she could get over whatever was bothering her. The problem was when Bonnie was alone she was stuck with her own thoughts.

The solitude was becoming unnerving for her again. That meant one of two things. She would get stir crazy and call Mason and the cycle would continue. Or she would need to find something or someone else to pay attention to. She had chosen the second route. But her new object of interest was nearly as bad as the first. Not because he was a bad person. He was a good person. Too good. Too smart. Too attractive. He was also older. He was also married. He was also Bonnie's literature teacher.

She knew that it was delusional. That she was setting herself up to get hurt. But she could not help but to read too much into the way that Stefan Salvatore looked at her. She could not help but to find something special in the way that he smiled when she entered a room. She could not help but to allow herself to imagine that the interest he had shown to her in the time since he had joined the faculty was more than just a teacher seeing promise in one of his pupils.

The problem was that while she was certain that it was a bad idea, no matter what she told herself about the stupidity of her thoughts she couldn't stop then. Even if his interest in her was strictly that of a teacher's interest in a student her interest in him had already surpassed that. She knew that it wouldn't be long before she started to pursue the man in earnest.

It was what she did. She could never leave well enough alone. When she cared enough to show interest in someone then it lead to her caring enough to like them. That led to her caring enough to pursue them and then she would cling. She liked to cling to things. She would cling for dear life no matter if it were something terribly unhealthy or something that was good for her. Because she didn't like to lose things. She didn't like to be alone. And so instead she held on and she held on tight.

The thing about Stefan was that he gave off the vibe of wanting someone to cling to him. Bonnie in her isolation had always been a people watcher. Because of that she managed to read people fairly well. It was how she knew that her art teacher was lonely even though he walked around with an heir of superiority and acted as if everyone outside of himself and the select few people he saw fit to pay attention to were simply unneeded. It was how she knew before her father that her mother wanted a divorce. It was how she knew before her mother that her father was having affairs while he was out of town. It was how Bonnie knew a lot of things.

Bonnie had read Stefan. Stefan was someone who liked to feel needed. To feel wanted. To feel desired. She could tell from the moment she saw him and he seemed more concerned about the impression he would make on the students than the lessons he would teach. He was open to people and he invited them in. And she had found through the time she spent with him after school in the book club that he was particularly susceptible to her.

She had taken to touching him at any opportune time. Small gestures that would seem inconsequential. But his reaction to them showed her that he was very much aware of her. And in spite of herself she was happy with the fact, even though she was determined to stop herself before things went farther than they should. She was teasing him and passing time. That was what she told herself.

Bonnie made her way to Stefan's classroom. It was after regular school hours. Time for another meeting of the book club. She was just outside of the door when she heard voices on the other side. She hesitated as she listened in on the conversation. She recognized Stefan's voice and the deep slightly accented voice of his companion Mr. Mikaelson.

"What do you mean your wife doesn't need you?" Mr. Mikaelson was saying, "She's your wife."

"I meant exactly what I said," Stefan sighed, "She doesn't need me. Not in the normal sense. She needs me in the sense that she needs something that she can lord over. That she can control. But she doesn't need me in the way that a wife needs her husband."

"Then why are you married?" Bonnie heard Mr. Mikaelson voice the question that she had been thinking to herself after overhearing the words.

"We got married because Katherine thought that we should," Stefan shrugged, "We're still married because…I mean I love her. I do. But she wasn't who I thought she was in the beginning and now…now it's as if I'm comfortable but not happy. But it doesn't matter. She's gone through a lot. It helps when she's away. I can appreciate her more after she's been gone."

"That's terribly depressing," Mr. Mikaelson said.

"That's life," Stefan commented, "Would you rather be alone or unhappy?" Bonnie sighed. That was a question that she asked herself daily. That was a question that kept her up at night. The answer was complicated. She had decided in terms of her ties to Mason that she would rather be alone. But she didn't like being alone. No one did.

"Sometimes," Mr. Mikaelson said, "There is no real choice but to be both."

Bonnie nodded though neither man could see. Yes. That was the answer. She smiled softly to herself as she thought of the time last year that she had spent enamored with Mr. Mikaelson. She had read him as well and she felt as if they were the same, though the loneliness that affected him resulted in a much darker outward personality than her own. That was why she had told Stefan to befriend him. She thought in their own ways that they would balance one another out. And they did.

Deciding that she would no longer intrude on their private conversation, she deliberately made noise and made herself known as she entered into the classroom. She smiled at Stefan and she wasn't surprised when he beamed at her in return. No one had ever smiled at her the way that he did. It wasn't just as if he were happy to see her, it was as if she had hung the moon and was the reason that the stars twinkled in the skies. It was yet another thing that made her want him.

When her eyes landed on Mr. Mikaelson she was surprised to find that he was actually looking at her. He didn't really look at anyone. He looked at Stefan but he considered Stefan a friend. Everyone else was beneath him. Everyone else was interchangeable. He was one of those people that looked at people but didn't really see them. He seemed to look at Bonnie as if he were really seeing her for the first time. She felt unnerved but she moved into the classroom just the same. She noted that Mr. Mikaelson seemed almost threatened and something clicked in her head. She smiled at him. Greeted him. He nodded and excused himself. He left the room, brushing past her.

For him like her Stefan was someone worth seeing. She eyed Stefan. Poor oblivious Stefan who didn't seem to understand what it meant to matter to someone like Mr. Mikaelson. But Bonnie understood. She wasn't surprised that it was Stefan either. Stefan was the easiest person in the world to care about. It was why Bonnie had become so easily taken with him herself in spite of the past she had with men and being neglected and used making her wary.

"Don't mind him," Stefan told her, "It isn't anything personal."

Bonnie smiled. "I know," she said, and she did. She understood even more than he did. She looked at the books that scattered atop Stefan's desk. Today they were picking what new book that they would start. They had just finished reading Samuel R. Delaney's _Babel 17_. "What no Nabokov?" she teased.

Stefan rolled his eyes. He had gotten used to her mocking him. It had been a month now. "You need to come up with some better jokes," he said.

Bonnie leaned against his desk and picked up a worn copy of _Mrs. Dalloway_ by Virginia Woolf. "I like this one," she said waving the book in front of his face.

"Then that's the one we'll read," he grinned as he leaned back against the desk as well.

"You're not going to give everyone else a vote?" Bonnie asked, one eyebrow shooting upward.

He shrugged. "Why should I?" he asked, "You're the only one that actually reads." He looked at her in the way that she hadn't known that she wanted to be looked at until the day that he had done it for the first time. "Besides," he said, "You're my favorite student."

"I'll remember that," Bonnie whispered. She placed a hand over his and let it linger much longer than necessary. She didn't move in fact, until the sound of the rest of the book club coming down the hall could be heard.

 **:::**

Niklaus had never liked Christmas. It was not a happy time for him. His family was dysfunctional at best and so he hadn't planned on celebrating with them or at all. But when Stefan invited him over for the holidays one day while they were eating lunch together in the teacher's lounge he had felt obligated to say yes.

He and Stefan had grown remarkably close in a short period of time. He reasoned it to do with the fact that they were both suffering from an absence of companionship. Stefan was married but his wife could hardly be said to be a suitable companion for anyone, least of all Stefan. He had only met the woman once since Stefan had started teaching but he found the woman off putting and bull headed. Besides that Stefan had rarely said anything good about her in some time. But in all fairness that was because when he spoke of her he was usually comparing her to Klaus himself or worse the Bennett girl.

Klaus was gratified to find that Stefan found him easier to talk to than his wife. In many ways he preferred his companionship. Klaus had been invited to Stefan's home many times while his wife was out of town. As Katherine controlled every aspect of their living space together as well as Stefan's behavior when she was there he wasn't surprised that he had yet to be invited over while Katherine was present. That was until he had been invited to spend Christmas with them.

"It's going to be a Christmas party," Stefan said, "My brother won't be there because he's having dinner with in-laws at Rose's old family home with the kids. It's going to be a bunch of Katherine's family and friends. I can't really get out of it but if you're there at least I'll have someone to talk to you know."

Klaus had nodded and agreed rather quickly. He felt as if he had accomplished a great feat. As if he was more than a friend, but a preferred companion. Something needed to facilitate Stefan's comfort and happiness. They had turned a corner.

But then he was talking about the Bennett girl again. About how if not for her friends and her grandmother that the girl would be spending the holidays alone. "Still getting too invested in the lives and doings of certain pupils I see," Klaus had commented.

Stefan was beyond the guilty expressions for the most part. He was better at hiding it. It had been a month and he was becoming even more enamored with the idiot girl. But he was also becoming more careful. Learning what to say and what not to say and in front of whom. It gave Klaus pause. If he was learning to keep his mouth shut then that meant that there could be some actual goings on that were worth keeping secret happening sometime soon. But it hadn't happened yet. Though Stefan was careful Klaus knew him well and he told Klaus everything now and so he would be the first person to know were it to go any farther than it was at the moment.

"I know you don't like her but that's hardly a reason for you to act so suspicions all the time," he sighed, "We all have our favorites. Saltzman dotes on all the football players and the Forbes girl and I don't see you lecturing him."

"I don't care about Saltzman," Klaus had said sounding bored. He had thought that that much was obvious but Stefan could be oblivious at the best of times.

"And you care about me I know," Stefan said, "But you don't have to worry so much. I'm not a child."

"Miss Bennett is however," Klaus pointed out, "And you are in a position of authority. Which means you have power over her. So in the eyes of the law your guilt will be a great one if this goes any further. Do you understand?"

Stefan had muttered under his breath before answering. "I understand every time you say that, Nik," he said.

"Well," Klaus had shrugged, "Perhaps one day I will believe that you do and I won't have to keep repeating myself for your benefit."

Stefan scowled and Klaus had thought that he had taken things too far and that he would be uninvited to dinner but his faced cleared a moment later and he smiled. "I know you're just looking out for me," he said, "So thank you."

Klaus nodded but in the back of his mind he wondered how long it would be before his gratitude turned to resentment the way that it did with everyone else.

 **:::**

Stefan Salvatore sat behind his desk and looked at the necklace that sat in the box that was in the palm of his hand. It was a silver necklace with a pendant that looked like a compass. Engraved on the back was a Robert Frost quote, from _The Road Not Taken_ , "Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

It was a Christmas gift for Bonnie. A foolish and impulsive purchase that he had made while out shopping. He had no intention of giving it to her. Bonnie wouldn't think anything of it. She thought of him only as a teacher. Perhaps as a friend. Someone to seek guidance from. Nothing more. But his own intentions were not as cut and dry. He did not think of her as just as student and wasn't sure that he ever had. This was wrong and he was digging himself into a hole. He would stop this.

He had a path. He had a life. He had a wife. This was wrong. Stefan moved to place the necklace in his desk drawer but froze as a knock came on his classroom door and Bonnie walked in "What are you doing here?" he asked, "Today's the last day before break so no book club remember?"

Bonnie smiled and nodded. She was bundled up to ward off the cold that she would be confronted with when she went outside and Stefan had probably never seen anything so adorable. He was getting used to thinking inappropriate things when it came to Bonnie. He didn't even try and fight the thoughts anymore. It was getting dangerous.

"I wanted to catch you before you went home," Bonnie said, "I'm not going to see you until after break so. Merry Christmas." She hesitated a moment before placing a small square box on his desk. He looked up at her a moment stunned. "Open it," Bonnie ordered impatiently after a moment.

Stefan did as she instructed. He didn't understand it. How someone as lonely as Bonnie claimed to be was so light and lively. How she could think about him enough to get him a Christmas gift when she had told him on one of the times she had opened up to him that she hadn't even gotten anything for either of her parents.

He opened the box and smiled as the mug on the inside. It was white will black letters and read, "Will write for coffee." He liked this girl so much he realized. This girl that had a sense of humor. This girl that knew loneliness but could still smile. This girl that moved like a dancer and had a voice like singing of angels. This girl that was his student. This girl that was his friend. This girl that he desired. He liked her. This girl. This cherub. His Bonnie.

"I know it's stupid and corny," Bonnie laughed, "But I just wanted to let you know that I was thinking about you. That's all."

Stefan sighed and stood. He took the small box with necklace that he had been examining before Bonnie entered in and gave it to her in spite of it going against his better judgment. "I was thinking about you too," he said, "You said you didn't expect many gifts that were personal this year. That you…you didn't think that anyone besides your Grams would pick you out something special and so _I_ did."

Stefan hadn't even gotten anything for Katherine yet. She usually left a list of her preferred gift choices on his desk in his study or told him to call her secretary. He hadn't actually put in any real thought into what to get her in a long time. He supposed that doing the opposite for Bonnie should bring about some guilt but it didn't.

Bonnie looked as if she might cry and when she looked into the box she did. Stefan didn't object when Bonnie hugged him though he knew that he should. He returned the embrace and smiled as he caught the faint scent of vanilla. "Thank you," she whispered. He realized that she sounded a little broken. That it was probably because he was the first person that had thought of her in a while. He couldn't regret giving her the gift after the realization hit. No matter how wrong he knew that it was.

At the sound of footsteps they pulled apart quickly. Bonnie squeezed his hand once and then she was gone. Fluttering off, graceful in her movements even in bulky winter clothes. As she left her scarf flew off and landed on the ground.

Walking forward and picking it up Stefan pressed the soft material to his nose and inhaled her scent. He thought about going after her but he decided that would only cause more problems for him as great as the temptation to be near her already was. So instead Stefan wrapped the scarf around his neck and decided to wear it home. This would be the closest to Bonnie that he would allow himself to get. This would have to be.

 **:::**

Stefan and Klaus sat in Stefan's den after Christmas dinner had ended. It had been a tolerable affair but not anything that Klaus wished to repeat. Katherine's friends were an uppity bunch that seemed to look down on Stefan and that made Klaus angry. But he had managed to control himself and for that Stefan was grateful.

"As far as Christmases go," Klaus said, "This was my best one for some time. I'm not entirely displeased that I came."

Stefan knowing that was as positive a response as he would get from Klaus, smiled. "I'm glad," he said. He stood and walked over to the wet bar. "You want a drink?" He asked.

Katherine was playing hostess to the last of their guest and though Stefan knew that she would be mad that he had disappeared he found that he didn't care. Not caring about what she thought or did was becoming a lot easier as of late.

Klaus nodded as he looked over the books that Stefan kept on his bookshelf. "You know what I like," he said as something odd caught his eyes. There was a white mug wedged in between a copy of _An American Tragedy_ and a first edition copy of _Lolita_.

Raising a brow Klaus reached for the mug. "Don't touch that," Stefan said louder than necessary causing Klaus to freeze. Stefan cleared his throat. "I mean," he said, "It was a gift. I don't want it to break."

"Who is it from?" Klaus asked, "It seems a bit immature for your taste."

Stefan coughed loudly before taking a large drink of bourbon from the glass in his hand. He was being obvious more than likely but Klaus was a hard person to lie to. He could read Stefan better than anyone he had met in his life. "A friend," he muttered just the same. It wasn't a lie. Not completely.

"I _see_ ," Klaus said. He didn't comment any further but his tone spoke volumes just the same.

He sounded as if he did see. As if he could see right through Stefan and he knew exactly where the gift had come from. Perhaps he did and that scared Stefan much more than he cared to admit. Because fear meant that there was something to hide. Fear meant that there was guilt. He hadn't done anything with Bonnie. But he thought about it. Day and night he thought about it and he knew that it was a matter of time before those thoughts became actions if he didn't tread carefully. Klaus knew too.


	5. An Intrusion: Water under the Bridge

**Title:** Notes on a Scandal

 **Rating:** M

 **Genre:** AU All Human

 **Pairing(s):** Bonnie/Stefan, Klaus/Stefan, Bonnie/Klaus, Bonnie/Stefan/Klaus, Stefan/Katherine, Caroline/Matt, Tyler/Vicki, mentions of past Bonnie/Mason, Klaus/Marcel, ect.

 **Summary:** Schoolteacher Niklaus Mikaelson has led a solitary life until Stefan Salvatore, the new English teacher at Mystic Falls High School, befriends him and takes him on as a confidante. But as their relationship develops, so does another as Stefan begins an illicit affair with an underage student, Bonnie Bennett. When the affair is discovered Klaus decides to write an account of the events in his friend's defense— through which it is revealed that his intentions with this "friend" go well beyond platonic friendship. Things become further complicated when Klaus' obsession extends to Bonnie during Stefan's trial.

 **Warnings:** Infidelity, Sexual Content, Non-Canon, Polyamourous Relationships, OOC Behavior, etc.

 **An Intrusion: Water under the Bridge**

After the trials fifth day the troll had a surprise visitor to his lair. It was not the pixie. While Bonnie had visited her visits were no longer a surprise. She had taken to the habit of sneaking over to the home I shared with Stefan quite often. Fluttering about on her fairy wings she would fly down as soon as the light left the skies. I often joked that she was directed there by the compass pendant on her neck. A gift from Stefan. One she never took off.

When my visitor arrived Bonnie and Stefan were asleep on the couch. We had been, the three of us, engaged in conversation. Talking of literature and art. Of anything but the trial and Stefan's impending fate.

The nymph is surprisingly cultured in terms of art. She is also very well read, but that does not surprise me. Stefan has always praised her literary knowledge. Then again he praises the girl for breathing in and out as well.

However, as the hour grew late the wayward couple began to tire. The foolish pair of star crossed lovers were soon asleep in one another's arms, ignoring the fact that I was still sitting very much awake on the opposite end of the couch.

I had watched Stefan sleep before. Many times in fact. There were even times when he fell asleep with his head in my lap. I had on those days found that he had had a fondness for being petted. Something that did not much surprise me as he has an unquenchable thirst for being touched. If one runs their fingers through his hair he purrs almost like a kitten. Bonnie pets him often. But as they are lovers it is to be expected. Then again she had taken to touching me as well.

Small things. A brush against me in the hall as we pass one another. A kiss on the cheek. Even before they had fallen asleep she had thrown her legs over my lap even as she snuggled rather obnoxiously into Stefan's chest as they lay together at the other end. It is as if she has taken my stating that I do not like to be touched as some sort of challenge. She is waiting for me to break down I suppose and berate her invasion of my personal space.

Stefan finds it amusing. He has even joined the game. He was affectionate before but he has become more so as the days pass. His hand lingers when he pats my back. When he hugs me the embraces lasts much longer than can be considered necessary. And on and on it goes.

It irks me. The continuous molestation of my person. Not in the way that it usually would. I've had always abhorred being touched. Even as a child. My mother was neglectful and her husband abusive and so I have always associated touch with the most negative aspects of human nature. Besides that I am private person. A solitary figure. Though I have let Stefan into my life it is because we share a particular sort of kinship. We are the same. Different outwardly but inside we are kindred. I have never found Stefan's touching particularly bothersome for that reason.

Stefan believes that Bonnie is kindred as well. I do not. She is another animal. A strange sprite that is equal parts confusing and intriguing. Everything I know about her contradicts something else that I discover. She is an ethereal aberration. But not…not entirely unwelcome. She is not kindred. But she is _something_. Something entirely unidentifiable. But since Stefan and I are kindred and Stefan has succumb to her lure I have an irrational fear that I may be next even though I am much more sensible than Stefan ever was or will ever hope to be.

The fairy thing has a particular brand of magic. A subtle art of enchantment that she uses to infiltrate the world of those around her. And when she is there if you are not careful you believe it was your idea to allow it and not her own acts of manipulation.

I do not think that it is _malicious_ in nature. The nymph is much too candy sweet for that. No…it is simply that her neglect has caused her to want to entrap things. To ensnare them and never let them go once she has them. Something catches her eye and it becomes _hers_. Inarguably and dangerously _hers_. Why else would Stefan be in the situation that he is in? Why else would his obsession with her still be intact even given all that he has given up for her?

I am beginning to think that I might have caught the nymph's eye and perhaps that is another reason for the touching. But I am stronger than Stefan as I have said before. Though, Stefan has managed to entrap me and gain my loyalty I came to him willingly and on my own terms. I am in danger of doing no such thing in terms of Bonnie. I have no use for her dark green eyes, her crooked mouth, or her warm vanilla scent. So she can try and trap and provoke me all she wishes. Her touches mean nothing. Or rather…they _should_ mean nothing.

No, I do not find the touching distasteful because I abhor it, but because I have come to enjoy it. Solitude has been my company for some time and so touch is a rarity. I do not like to be touched because I am not _accustomed_ to it. At least not in the tender or loving sense of the word. But the infuriating pair of idiots are changing that. I fear for myself when this is over. For no matter Stefan's fate the girl will wait for him and then they will leave. Disappear to one of those places they have read about in a book or poem. Off to fill out the rest of Stefan's timeline of their lives together. The prince will take his fairy to a faraway land and the troll will be left alone in darkness once more.

I am sure of it now more than ever I have been. But still something makes me doubt it. Something dangerously close to hope. Hope that I had not felt in some time. Hope that came from the intruder into the little world that I had built with the prince. The one that the pixie had infiltrated in a way that almost made me believe that it was my idea to let her in. Hope that I did not wish to feel because although I do not wished to be abandon I do not wish to be trapped either. The paradox of the thing is maddening to say the least. So when the outsider to the fairytale world came knocking I bid them in even though a part of me wished to turn them away.

The visitor was the friend of whom I had spoken of before. Marcellus or to the rest of the world Marcel. My sister told him of my plight and he decided to endeavor to check on my well-being. When our friendship had first disbanded itself it was an unpleasant thing to see him even from afar. I didn't wish to hear his name. I didn't wish to _think_ it. He was, it seemed a mistake that I had made that haunted me through his ties to my dear sister Rebekah. But seeing him there in the doorway as the rain fell behind him I saw nothing but a stranger that barely even knew me. A stranger that had once been something important but for the life of me I could not seem to recall why.

When I invited him in we went into the kitchen. He moved to sit down across from me at the table but that was where the pixie normally sat so I stopped him. He moved to sit on the right side of me but that was Stefan's accustomed seat and so again I stopped him. By the time he was sitting down in a chair that did not displease me to see him occupy he was giving me a rather _odd_ look. I could not say that I blamed him. Only there was something _knowing_ in his gaze. It was as if he saw something familiar and yet something that I was not myself aware of.

 _How have you been?_ He asked. It was such a simple question and yet how was I to answer.

I could not say "good" as his replacement as my companion was now on trial. I had lost my job. Stefan had obviously lost his. And then there was Bonnie. Bonnie who had made herself a fixture in the house, in spite of the risks that were involved.

But I could not say "bad" either. Because I still had Stefan. And once more I was even more important to him now than I had been as outside of his precious Bonnie I was really all that he had left. Then there was the sprite. My fairy tale bred oddity. Did I just write such trite? Apparently I have subconsciously claimed ownership of her as well and that within itself speaks _volumes_.

"I am doing as to be expected given my circumstances," was the answer that I gave.

Marcel nodded and as he studied me I felt little above an insect under his gaze. I did not like the feeling and so I offered him something to drink just so that I would have an excuse to leave the table.

As I made myself tea and him coffee I heard the sound of footsteps. I didn't need to turn to know that it was Bonnie. Stefan walks into a room with a false sense of purpose. Bonnie walks into a room as if she fears that once she enters it she will be considered an unwanted burden. The hesitant soft steps had Bonnie written all over them.

I glanced at her over my shoulder. She was wearing on of my shirts that day. It swallowed her even more so than Stefan's did and yet she insisted on pilfering our clothing whenever possible as if she didn't own a stich of her own. She glanced warily at Marcel and her light flickered slightly before she fluttered happily over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist from behind.

I looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. "Do you have a _death wish_?" I asked my expression deadpan. Her laughter followed and I rolled my eyes. She has no problem finding reasons to laugh at me. It's infuriating to say the least. I often pride myself on being intimidating but nothing intimidates Bonnie. Not really. She takes the world in stride once she gets over her initial uncertainty.

 _Be irritated all you want_ , she said, _but you can blame yourself. I wouldn't be up if I hadn't heard you talking._

"Are you expecting an apology for waking you?" I asked.

 _No_ , she muttered, _you're too mean for that_. Her arms tightened around me as a throat cleared from behind us.

I turned having forgotten momentarily that Marcel was there. It felt odd as I was always so very hyperaware of him before. I introduced them briefly and then Bonnie stood on her toes and kissed my cheek before she disappeared again mumbling about Stefan waking if she didn't return to him.

 _That her?_ Marcel asked and I knew what he meant. Was that the girl from the tabloids and the newspapers? Was that the girl that was fodder for the press? Was that the girl that a man had ruined his life for? Yes and no. She was much more than that. The press didn't know her. And though Stefan had ruined himself for her I didn't like the idea of Marcel judging her. I didn't like the idea of anyone judging her but me.

"Her name is Bonnie," I answered, "Like I said when I introduced her. As far as the press. They know nothing. She and Stefan are idiots. They are misguided. But they also share the same delusion that they are in love. We mustn't fault them that, Marcel. Judge not, remember? Wasn't that what you said when you took up with Rebekah?"

 _Listen_ , he said and I knew that he would go on the defensive.

"Don't mistake my words, Marcel," I told him, "I am quite over it. It's water under the bridge as they say. I just don't see how _you_ are fit to judge her that's all." I didn't like defending Bonnie but it was necessary in that moment. _I_ knew her. _I_ understood her. He _did not_. _No one_ outside of myself and Stefan did.

 _I wasn't going to_ , Marcel said, his smile that had once seemed nice seemed to have a sort of false charm to it as he spoke, _she's pretty._

I shrugged. "She is passably attractive I suppose," I said, "But her nose is too small and her mouth is too crooked. She smiles too much. She's invasive."

 _Mmmm hmmm_ , Marcel nodded but he was looking at me a way that made me uncomfortable again. In that _knowing_ way that Bonnie did sometimes. He could read people well. He could still read me. _I guess you got over that whole no touching thing_ , he said after a moment.

"I have done no such thing," I stated.

 _Of course not_ , he said and he was grinning in a way that made me want to murder him where he sat. _And this Stefan, what's he like?_

"An imbecile who reads too much but he is a true friend," I muttered, "He is…like me. He understands the way I am." I didn't like revealing myself in this manner. Especially not to one so undeserving. But I could not help it. It just came out.

 _You seem happy_ , Marcel said, _I'm glad. I'll tell Rebekah that she doesn't have to worry so much._

Happiness. Such a foreign concept. Especially for one like myself. Even so I didn't deny it. Then we talked about inconsequential things until finally he left. I was relieved to see him go. He was how I remembered him to be…but not. The same but not as important as I made myself believe.

I walked back into the living room and found Bonnie watching Stefan as he slept. She was standing and looking down at him but she seemed to be looking lost. "Why do you look as if someone has stolen your wings, little pixie?"

When she laughed I was for the first time glad to hear it. She doesn't do well with being solemn. It's unlike her.

 _Your friend_ , Bonnie said as I sat down on the couch and Stefan shifted, his head rolling into my lap, _Will he be back?_

"No," I told her. She nodded and came down to sit on the other side of me. My hand lifted unconsciously and I carded my fingers through Stefan's hair as he slept on. I remembered myself and glanced at Bonnie but she seemed unbothered as she glanced between us and so I continued.

 _Does it bother you_ , she asked, _that he won't be back?_

I shook my head. "No," I answered. And it didn't. As much as it bothered me when he was no longer there, I was equally as unaffected by his absence.

 _Good_ , she murmured, as she curled into my side and rested her head on my shoulder, _besides there's no more room under the bridge anyway_.

Sweet little Bonnie. Never saying anything outright but revealing the hidden truth all the same. She had been threatened. Which meant that I was indeed her next target. I looked down at Stefan and something told me that he _knew_. He knew us both too well to not _know_. But he wasn't doing anything to stop it. I didn't know what to make of that.

"A troll, a prince, and a fairy nuisance is more than enough," I said aloud.

When she smiled at me I didn't wince at its brightness. It was almost beguiling that smile. It would seem that the bait is being dangled and the trap that I so feared has been set.

 _ **End Notes: So there it is so far. Please don't pm regarding updates or comment about other stories in the review section for this fic. Everything will be up again when I have time. Thanks for reading.**_


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